A $12 million boost from savvy marketing

Branding, local advertising and a menu expansion helped this Cincinnati buffalo-wings chain take flight.

EMAIL  |   PRINT  |   SHARE  |   RSS
 
google my aol my msn my yahoo! netvibes
Paste this link into your favorite RSS desktop reader
See all CNNMoney.com RSS FEEDS (close)

philip_schram.03.jpg
Philip Schram, CEO of Buffalo Wings & Rings

(Fortune Small Business) -- The cuisine he sells isn't exactly what he grew up eating in his native Paris, but Philip Schram knows he can add panache to anything he peddles. After he launched a new marketing campaign for his Cincinnati-based restaurant chain, Buffalo Wings & Rings, sales jumped from $8 million in 2006 to $20 million in 2007.

Schram, 44, worked in France until his employer, auto-parts maker ZF Friedrichshafen, transferred him to Cincinnati in 2000. "Ever since I was a young boy, I dreamed of owning a business," he says. When he heard that a co-worker's father was planning to sell an underperforming chicken wings and onion rings franchise, Schram saw opportunity and bought the six-restaurant chain in 2005.

To boost foot traffic immediately, Schram insisted that franchisees spend about 3% of their sales on neighborhood advertising such as direct mailings and flyers. Then he tackled the bigger problem: "Each shop looked completely different. There was no branding," he says. So he hired a design firm to create an appealing look for the stores, which includes galvanized-sheet-metal furnishings and a green, red and yellow palate. He also introduced more menu options.

As revenues grew in 2007, Schram opened 13 new locations, bringing the total to 43. He expects to open about 25 Midwest restaurants by the end of 2008. Schram also landed a deal with a Korean restaurant supplier to open locations on U.S. Army bases in Kuwait, selling wings, onion rings and a distinctly American image to soldiers abroad.  To top of page

After the Wal-Mart deal: After Cynthia Baker landed distribution with Wal-Mart for her Buffalo wing tongs, she learned that breaking into big retail is just the start of her sales work.

A million-dollar biz: Plastic wishbones

Better marketing pays off for beef jerky biz
To write a note to the editor about this article, click here.




QMy dream is to launch my own business someday. Now that it's time to choose a major, I'm debating if I should major in entrepreneurial studies or major in engineering to acquire a set of skills first. Is majoring in entrepreneurship a good choice? More
Get Answer
- Spate, Orange, Calif.

Sponsors
More Galleries
10 of the most luxurious airline amenity kits When it comes to in-flight pampering, the amenity kits offered by these 10 airlines are the ultimate in luxury More
7 startups that want to improve your mental health From a text therapy platform to apps that push you reminders to breathe, these self-care startups offer help on a daily basis or in times of need. More
5 radical technologies that will change how you get to work From Uber's flying cars to the Hyperloop, these are some of the neatest transportation concepts in the works today. More

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.